Autism

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to register today!

Click here to register today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Eaves, L. C.
Right arrow Articles by Ho, H. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Eaves, L. C.
Right arrow Articles by Ho, H. H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Autism, Vol. 10, No. 3, 229-242 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1362361306063288
© 2006 The National Autistic Society, SAGE Publications

Screening for autism

Agreement with diagnosis

Linda C. Eaves

Heather Wingert

Helena H. Ho

Sunny Hill Health Centre,Vancouver,Canada

Screening measures to identify very young children at risk for autism spectrum disorders include the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M–CHAT) and the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). To examine the validity of these written questionnaires, parents completed them prior to their child's diagnostic assessment at a tertiary autism clinic. The M–CHAT was given to 84 parents of 2 to 3-year-olds and the SCQ to 94 parents of 4 to 6-year olds. On both measures sensitivity was higher than specificity with positive predictive values 0.63–0.68. False negatives, or children with autism who were missed by screening, were somewhat higher functioning than true positives. Results were better for parents who spoke English as a second language, contrary to expectations. At this stage of development these tools would be recommended as part of more comprehensive surveillance programmes to identify children in need of further assessment but not to ‘screen out’ the possibility of autism.

Key Words: autism spectrum disorders • Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers • screening tools Social Communication Questionnaire


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Br. J. PsychiatryHome page
T. Charman, G. Baird, E. Simonoff, T. Loucas, S. Chandler, D. Meldrum, and A. Pickles
Efficacy of three screening instruments in the identification of autistic-spectrum disorders
The British Journal of Psychiatry, December 1, 2007; 191(6): 554 - 559.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]